Month: January 2014

Twelve days into the year and we have already had 14 homicides around Baltimore. As someone who lived in D.C. when crack was new and we were the murder capitol as well as the country’s capitol, I had hoped we would never sink to such lows again.

I am wrong of course. Detroit, Chicago, and Baltimore have followed suit, as well as a host of other cities over the years that should not have equal billing. None of these cities should be on any such list. Primarily because it should not be that easy to kill someone.

I am not talking about the firearms debate because it’s not really about that. I understand going after them because it would seem the easiest way to curb the random and not-so-random violence that is striking all of our neighborhoods all at once. However, it goes beyond that.

How does one human being kill another human being in any situation outside true survival. True survival being a more tangible reason than just “fearing for my life.” Perhaps in a fight over what I knew was the last drinkable water on earth, or the last fertile female with whom I might start to re-populate the earth, I could kill quite easily.

But who knows? During a similar discussion with someone in my inner circle, I was told that he wouldn’t even want to kill for those reasons. I am skeptical, but have to take him at his word while hoping we never have to find out.

With all of that said, I find myself feeling flat that one person close to my family had to spend her Christmas having lost her brother about a week before. That homicide remains unsolved of course. He was found shot to death. That’s all we know.

Number 14 was found similarly in a crashed car this morning. Now I wonder what we can do under the circumstances. There are 350 days to go.